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tl;dr He made mistakes, arguably on some bad advice from Tesla reps, that anyone who owned the car for a week would know not to make. The entire "test" was just as much about his ability to plan an EV trip as it is about how the car actually performs. The hemming and hawing about "well in my notes I wrote" against the documentation is annoying.

sayidreddy | February 14, 2013

“The final leg of his trip was 61 miles and yet he disconnected the charge cable when the range display stated 32 miles. He did so expressly against the advice of Tesla personnel and in obvious violation of common sense.”

The Tesla personnel whom I consulted over the phone – Ms. Ra and Mr. Merendino –told me to leave it connected for an hour, and after that the lost range would be restored. I did not ignore their advice.

Tis part is ridiculous; hoping that lost range would be restored by conditioning the battery just simply does not make any sense. I hope the Tesla personnel did not give him this advice. Try to go more than 50 miles when the dashboard says 32 miles in freezing cold weather is just asking for the car to stop.

archibaldcrane | February 14, 2013

Basically, the reps said "charge for an hour and you should be good to go" supposedly - without necessarily enough knowledge of the charging port he was using, and this guy stubbornly took them at their word despite common sense dictating clearly that he wasn't going to make it.

It reiterates a few things that anyone ordering a Tesla already knows: Don't take Tesla reps' word for anything, and plug in your car overnight, especially if it's cold.

Sudre_ | February 14, 2013

I am curious about the conversations with the Tesla reps. I am wondering if the reps really said to unplug the car after 1 hour no matter what, which he seems to imply. I still don't know why he would unplug with less miles than what he needed.... but if he called the Tesla rep and said, 'hey the miles are only XX' and the rep said unplug and go then he has a good point. I find it hard to believe that a Tesla rep told him to only charge for 1 hour, no more no less, and leave no matter what the range says on the dash.

I also do not get his explanations or lack there of for the speedo in the logs. The log, I would think, is taking the exact number he is seeing on the speedometer and recording right? If it is using GPS then I can see discrepancies depending on how good the GPS signal was.

shop | February 14, 2013

Border's mistakes were:

- not plugging the car in at night, especially when it was cold outside. This was pretty dumb.

- not charging enough the last morning. While his excuse was that the person on the phone told him one hour was sufficient, it was pretty lazy on his part to not think about what was going on to stop the charge before the car said it was OK.

Telsa's mistakes were:

Not giving him a single competent person to talk to since this guy was obviously clueless. It does sound like he did not get enough instruction on how to run the car, and in fact got erroneous information along the way.

I don't know, given that he says he is a veteran reporter, he comes across as pretty clueless.

mbcaffe | February 14, 2013

basically he is adminitting to being ignorant. As I stated in another post, someone should write "electric cars for dummies" with him in mind. I am sorry to say that he is an idiot. Tesla should have assumed he was an idiot when giving him instructions.

"Before I set out in the Model S, I did speak with the company’s chief technology officer, J B Straubel, about the charging network and some of the car’s features and peculiarities. Neither he nor the Tesla representative who delivered the car to me provided detailed instructions on how to maximize the driving range, the impact of cold weather on battery strength or how to get the most out of the Superchargers or the publicly available lower-power charging ports along the route."

A journalist with the following credentials should know better.

"Since 2009, I have been the Washington bureau reporter responsible for coverage of energy, environment and climate change. I have written numerous articles about the auto industry and several vehicle reviews for the Automobiles pages. (In my 16 years at The Times I have served as White House correspondent, Washington editor, Los Angeles bureau chief and a political correspondent.)"

DouglasR | February 14, 2013

Still, there's a saying: "Never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel."

Sudre_ | February 14, 2013

I wonder how much ass chewing the two Tesla reps are/have gotten.

KevinR.co.us | February 14, 2013

We have evidence for untruths, misrepresentations, & lies. There is no way to discern what part of Broder's narrative is true. We can go with the objective car data- but that doesn't sell copy with the media. Now the media will keep the story alive by replicating the trip and adding other caveats & disclaimers. How often do we still see stories on bigfoot & Loch Ness years after the frauds were admitted? I think this story will have life until the 4th quarter results are published. In my SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess)opinion this is all about the TSLA stock price being pushed lower temporarily.

Superliner | February 14, 2013

Has anyone "combined" the threads and spur threads that have popped up about the NYC range debacle? It is getting very difficult in this forum to keep up lol!!

shs | February 14, 2013

The other part I don't understand is that supposedly Tesla told him to turn off cruise control and alternately speed up and show down to recover energy via regenerative braking. I really have trouble believing that anyone at Tesla would say something that was so obviously wrong. Maybe he got ahold of Professor Gravity on the other end of the line.

shop | February 14, 2013

Yeah, only a NY Times reporter would think that you could generate energy by speeding up and slowing down :-)

shop | February 14, 2013

That speed up/slow down thing is one of many reasons I called Broder a prick. He is either really clueless (I mean, really, would anyone really think that?), or decided to take everything said or misunderstood by Tesla at face value even if it flew in the face of common sense. That's being an annoying prick in my book.

archibaldcrane | February 14, 2013

My first day working at a Subway sandwich shop when I was 16, the timer went off for the bread oven. I opened the door, and asked the 70-year old owner "what do you take these trays out with?" He replied "with your hands". Thinking that the trays were akin to aluminum foil in the oven (don't conduct heat, are touchable) I grabbed the first tray and burned the shit out of my hand.

Obviously I meant "where is the oven mitt", and like an idiot didn't realize he didn't quite get what I was asking and I blindly trusted him.

This, basically, is what Broder did with the Tesla reps advice.

I don't think he's as big of an idiot as I was at 16.

gregv64 | February 14, 2013

My guess as to the final exchange about recharging is that it went something like this:

Tesla rep: I believe if you charge for an hour you should have enough charge to get to Milford.

Broder: It's been an hour, I'm just going to leave despite what it says on the dial, because I can say I was just following Tesla's directions.

archibaldcrane | February 14, 2013

gregv64 - yep, that's definitely what happened.

cprenzl | February 14, 2013

excuse my language but, Tesla NEEDS to Sue his dumdass. End of story. this has caused so much damage to prospective buyers... Also sense Tesla shared evidence why doesn't he post that "email" that Elon sent asking him if he wanted to try again. This guy is full of BS

cprenzl | February 14, 2013

Wow *Dumbass

danielccc | February 14, 2013

@shs, yeah, that speed and slow advice is truly bizarre.

The broader problem here is that this is quickly turning into a "he said / she said" narrative and will be presented as such by the mainstream press. For example, was the parking lot so badly lit that night? Who knows? The winter tires change the speed readings? It's impossible to prove this stuff.

I am sure Broder went for the car carrier shot. It makes the piece. But I also know that burrowing into details never works in the media. Heck, it rarely works in person.

Musk gave oxygen to a story that by itself would have had little impact if treated properly. I sympathize. He's been working incredibly hard for many, many years, and has assembled a group of people around him who have also worked incredibly hard. This means personal sacrifice and investment. Heart and soul went into this car.

I cannot express how difficult it can be to see an unfair takedown of so much effort, and remain cool and objective. I get that.

But this is hardball, and as Tesla succeeds, there is plenty more where this came from. Musk really needs to get a pro to handle this kind of thing. Tit for tat engagement is the wrong way to go.

RobS | February 14, 2013

When I talk to folks about my MS, I rave about the vision, design and engineering of Tesla. Then I add that unfortunately, their customer service is not up to the standards of the rest of the company. While Broder seems like a fool, sadly, I find it believable that he repeatedly got bad advise from Tesla reps. Perhaps this will cause Tesla to take a hard look at how to bring their customer service/relations up to the same high standards as the rest of the company.

danielccc | February 14, 2013

A lawsuit would be a bad idea. Tesla needs to suck the oxygen out of this story and replace it with positive words and images.

The Q4 earnings report is the next opportunity to change the subject of the conversation. It will surely be a mix of good and bad news. They need to focus on how hey are going to present it and stop wasting time with Broder.

chadrchristensen79 | February 14, 2013

Cprenzl
I agree with u, only a dumbass would blame his speed
On 19" instead of 21" wheels.

"But officer u don't understand, these are 19's"!

If he would have had the 21" wheels with summer
tires he would have went in the ditch and blamed that on a
Phone rep too.

Jeff Miller | February 14, 2013

What Tesla could do is wait until the temperature is in a similar range, and then repeat the exact same trip using a knowledgable driver who makes intelligent decisions along the way. They could document the whole thing. That would settle the question of whether the fault lay in the car or in the driver.

shs | February 14, 2013

I believe that CNN is doing the route right now.

jk2014 | February 14, 2013

CNN just made it to Milford with 38 miles to spare. They even leadfoot it the last 20 minutes.

RedShift | February 14, 2013

Nick:
"People are ready for electric cars but the problem is that battery's are not ready for people."

It's not battery's, it's batteries.

Why don't you finish school, then come back to continue your tirade?

Bubba2000 | February 14, 2013

I wonder if the GPS on the Model S can be upgraded to give a trip solution. The use would give start point, time of departure, destination, speed level (hi, low). If the computer has the locations and type of chargers, weather conditions, it can tell what places the car needs to stop for recharging and how long. Warn if the speed is too hi and suggest measures to extend range like lowering speed, turn off HVAC, etc.

It would folks like Broder from themselves.

shop | February 14, 2013

jk2014 - what's the link? Or this a live TV thing?

Vall | February 14, 2013

...Neither he nor the Tesla representative who delivered the car to me provided detailed instructions on how to maximize the driving range, the impact of cold weather on battery strength or how to get the most out of the Superchargers...

Here's an idea to get the most out of the superchargers: LEAVE THE CAR PLUGGED IN UNTIL IT'S FULL...

He admits he understood that low temp influence range, as his range was dropping faster than he expected, on his first trip in the car... and there is no way to tell what the influences will be, it is based on individual driving styles and conditions.

TikiMan | February 14, 2013

Yup, I learned many years ago that as a general rule-of-thumb, always OVER-compensate, and NEVER under-estimate with anything in life. Every ICE car I have EVER owned in my life has never matched the posted manufacture's MPG ratings. In fact, I believe Toyota was sued by a Prius owner, whom proved the car never achieved the posted MPG rating by Toyota (or even close).

With that said, driving isn't rocket-science, and there are literally thousands of variables that can occur at any time, to change how any vehicle will perform by margin of 20%. Or in other words, if you plan doing anything in ANY vehicle, always compensate for 20%, and you will be fine.

The NY Times writer obviously took everything on a ZERO% margin or error, knowing full well that it wasn't his car, his money, or his ASS that would suffer, if all went wrong (and for that matter, having things go wrong sells news papers). When you are young and naive, you take stupid chances on faith, and after realizing that 50% of the time, things won't work out in your favor, you learn very quickly to over-compensate in life (in business we call it 'padding').

Regardless, if what this reporter wrote dejects a few possible MS buyers from owning the most innovative vehicle since the Ford: Model T, so be it. Tesla still can't build enough MS's fast enough to handle the demand yet.

In closing; the horse and buggy was still around for nearly a decade plus after Ford made the automobile affordable to the general public. Back them I am sure there were folks who were concerned about finding a petrol station, when horse stables were just about everywhere.